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Perpetual prayer (Latin: ''laus perennis'') is the

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

practice of continuous prayer carried out by a group.

History

The practice of perpetual prayer was inaugurated by the

archimandrite The title archimandrite ( gr, ἀρχιμανδρίτης, archimandritēs), used in Eastern Christianity, originally referred to a superior abbot (''hegumenos'', gr, ἡγούμενος, present participle of the verb meaning "to lead") who ...

Alexander (died about 430), the founder of the monastic

Acoemetae Acoemetae (also spelled Acoemeti or Akoimetoi gr, ἀκοίμητος, lit=sleepless ones) was an order of Eastern Christian (Greek or Basilian) monks who celebrated the divine service without intermission day or night. This was done by dividing ...

or "vigil-keepers". ''Laus perennis'' was imported to Western Europe at

St. Maurice's Abbey The Abbey of Saint Maurice, Agaunum (french: Abbaye de Saint-Maurice d'Agaune or ''Saint-Maurice-en-Valais'') is a Swiss monastery of canons regular in Saint-Maurice, Canton of Valais, which dates from the 6th century. It is situated against a c ...

Agaunum Agaunum was an outpost in Roman Switzerland, predecessor of the modern city of Saint-Maurice in the canton of Valais, southwestern Switzerland. It was used by the Roman Empire for the collection of the '' Quadragesima Galliarum''. In Christian tr ...

, where it was carried on, day and night, by several choirs, or ''turmae'', who succeeded each other in the recitation of the divine office, so that prayer went on without cessation. Called the ''Akoimetoi'' ("Sleepless Ones"), these monks prayed "a monastic round of twenty-four offices to fill every hour." The inauguration of ''laus perennis'' at Agaunum circa 515 was the occasion of a solemn ceremony, and of a sermon by St. Avitus which survives. The "custom of Agaunum", as it came to be called, spread over Gaul, to Lyons, Châlons, the

Abbey of Saint Denis The Basilica of Saint-Denis (french: Basilique royale de Saint-Denis, links=no, now formally known as the ) is a large former medieval abbey church and present cathedral i